1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electrical connector assemblies and particularly to connector assemblies with programmable elements.
2. Description of the Related Art
The invention described and illustrated herein is related to copending commonly assigned application Ser. No. 07/544,106 filed May 26, 1990 and commonly assigned application Ser. No. 07/592,277 filed Sep. 28, 1990.
Electrical connector assemblies are well known which include an insulator member having a plurality of elongated passages extending between external facing and internal facing portions of the member. Individual conductive members can be inserted into the passages in order to provide conductive paths between the external and internal facing portions.
Such earlier connector assemblies are programmable. That is, individual conductive members may be inserted into corresponding passages or not, depending upon the use of the connector. A conductive path is formed when a conductive member is inserted into a passage. Conversely, no conductive path is formed where a conductive member is not inserted into a passage.
Each separate conductive member inserted into a passage of the insulator member provides a separate conductive path between the external facing and the internal facing sides of the insulative member. Thus, each separate conductive member can provide a separate electrical connection between a separate external connector on the external facing side of the insulator member and a corresponding separate internal connector on the internal facing side of the insulator member. In the past, typical earlier conductive members included a receiving portion at one end thereof for mechanically engaging and electrically contacting an external pin connectors. Additionally, at an opposite end of such typical earlier conductive member a pin portion was formed.
The programming of such earlier electrical connectors involved sliding insertion of the conductive members into corresponding passages in the insulative member. Usually, the width of the passages was sized to accommodate the widest dimension of the conductive member. Moreover, insertion ordinarily was made through the internal facing side of the insulating member.
One problem experienced by such earlier connectors has been potential electrical interference between the conductive members when inserted in the passages. A gap often existed between the narrower pin portion and an insulative member passage which was sized wide enough to permit insertion of the wider receiving portion of the conductive member. This gap could potentially permit electrical interference to exist between different conductive members.
Another problem confronted by earlier electrical connector assemblies has been the problem of electrostatic discharge (ESD) and filtering. In order to accommodate such ESD and filtering, for example, an electrical contact ordinarily was made between individual conductive members and corresponding individual electrical filtering component such as a capacitor, resistor, varistor or diode. The individual electrical filtering component, in turn, typically was electrically coupled to a grounded conductor, for example. Thus, unwanted electrical interference could be filtered out.
In some earlier connector assemblies a conductor bridge provided electrical connection between an individual conductive member and a filtering component. Typically, such a conductive bridge was inserted into a gap in the insulator member between a corresponding conductive member and filtering component. Unfortunately, the gap between the conductor bridge and the insulative member potentially could contribute to electrical interference between conductive members. Moreover, such conductive bridges potentially could suffer from mechanical instability.
Thus, there has been a need for a programmable electrical connector assembly in which there is reduced electrical interference between conductive members and improved mechanical stability. The present invention meets these needs.